Twin2Share - Digital twins for energy optimization in energy communities (ECs)

Starting point / motivation

Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are a new concept that empowers communities, municipalities and cities to generate, share and use renewable energy to reduce environmental impacts and drive the energy transition.

In Austria, interest in RECs is growing steadily, supported by the "Erneuerbaren Ausbau Gesetz" (EAG2020) and the new coordination office: by the end of 2023, the number had risen to more than 800. To establish RECs in the long term, an ecosystem of services is needed.

The establishment, development and operation of RECs is still associated with considerable organizational hurdles, high time expenditure and cost risks. The many issues that have not yet been investigated include impact forecasting when setting up an REC, the integrated consideration of electricity and heat, efficient, dynamic load management during operation and the dynamic utilization of existing systems as energy buffers, as well as the associated socio-technical challenges and learning potentials of the novel organizational forms.

Contents and goals

The aim of Twin2Share is the conception, prototypical implementation and scientific evaluation of an innovative software product that can be easily adapted (configured) to the requirements of a specific energy community (EC) and supports all phases from start-up to operation.

The starting point is the use of Digital Twins (DTs), a concept that is becoming established in practice in areas such as the production and AECO industry. The high dynamics of load management in an EC, the important role of user behaviour and integration, and the automated controllability of modern energy-consuming devices make DTs the optimal concept for comprehensive support of ECs.

This makes it possible to strengthen the concept of "citizen empowerment" in ECs in addition to optimizing energy efficiency and costs.

Methods

The following functionality is implemented:

1. Establishment of an EC: development of simulation methods for energy optimization. In addition to forecasts of costs and savings, indicators for the achievement of SDG targets and social aspects are taken into account.
2. Operation and optimization of an EC: dynamic load management in energy communities is implemented using a developed multi-objective optimization pipeline. Targets and constraints for optimization will be dynamically adaptable to the current situation in an EC. The aim is to transfer optimized behaviour to devices with corresponding control options (e.g. Modbus TCP).
3. Expansion of an EC: The successive expansion of successful energy communities requires forecasting and simulation techniques to identify suitable new members, building on the methods developed in the establishment phase.

The design science research methodology combines theory and practice of digital innovation, making it ideal for this project. The iterative process enables the efficient integration of changing requirements.

The focus is on user centricity: professional, technical and user experience requirements are recorded from the outset through user surveys. Regular (end) user tests and evaluations ensure the usefulness of the implementation. To this end, the software is continuously rolled out in at least two demo ECs.

Expected results

Currently, there is no holistic software support for ECs. With the implementation of a digital twin, which not only reflects the real world but also offers the possibility to integrate the optimized behaviour back into the physical system, a groundbreaking product is created.

The relevance of dynamic load management and the consideration of storage technologies becomes particularly clear alongside their potential contribution to energy efficiency enhancement, especially in terms of their potential to stabilize the power grid, which is essential for the successful establishment of the REC concept.

Project management

University of Innsbruck, Institute for Computer Science, Univ. Prof. Dr. Ruth Breu

Project or cooperation partners

• Autonoma Energy
• Innsbrucker Kommunalbetriebe (IKB)
• Future.lab

Alexandra Jäger, MSc
Technikerstraße 21a
A-6020 Innsbruck
Tel.: +43 (512) 507 / 53335
E-mail: alexandra.jaeger@uibk.ac.at
Web: qe-informatik.uibk.ac.at